Boston is a world-class city – but it’s come a long way to achieve that success.
Irish immigrants flooded into Boston from 1846 to 1849, seeking refuge from the devastating potato famine back home. White Protestant Bostonians welcomed them with racist and religious prejudice. The Irish were considered inferior and treated as second-class citizens. It wasn’t long until Italians fleeing their own hardships followed suit, settling in Boston en masse between 1880 and 1920. The Irish, who had a short memory for their own mistreatment, greeted them with oppression and racism.
Black Bostonians, who have been in the city longer than the Irish and Italians, have also faced brutal racism. The 1970s busing crisis rivaled the racism of the Dixie Democrat South. Boston’s three main communities were at each other’s throats. Blacks and Italians couldn’t go to Southie, Blacks and Irish couldn’t go to the North End, Italians and Irish couldn’t go to Roxbury. Boston’s elites did everything they could to ensure that all three groups fought over crumbs.
Today, Blacks, Italians, and Irish in Boston not only live in the same neighborhoods, but they marry, work together, send their children to the same schools and form lifelong friendships. Things aren’t perfect, but the progress we’ve achieved as a city is monumental.
Boston now has an Asian-American mayor, Michelle Wu, and a multicultural city council. Members of the most marginalized communities in Boston now wield tremendous political power. Progressives Wu, NAACP President Tanisha Sullivan, as well as city councilors Richard Arroyo, Julia Mejia, Kendra Lara, and Tania Fernandes Anderson have been placed in positions of political influence.
It’s great that people of different ethnic backgrounds lead the city. What isn’t great is that this group wants to take us back 100 years instead of forging a better future. Their policies make this evident. Taking away Columbus Day from the Italian community, their “unity” redistricting map that discriminates against Irish Catholics and disenfranchises Black voters, and their shared disdain for police, who are the only thing standing between violent criminals and complete mayhem in the Black community. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to abolish St. Patrick’s Day over snake abuse.
The mantra of equity and diversity camouflages their own brand of discrimination. Here, however, the label “racist” is often hurled not at actual racists, but as a weapon to silence those who disagree with them.
Boston is not trapped in the 1970s, despite what they’d have you believe, but saying it is garners support for their policies. It also helps sow discord. In the progressive world, the powers that be present themselves as champions of underprivileged Black, Latino, and Cape Verdean communities struggling with low-quality public schools and a high rate of violent crime. If they truly cared, they’d do all they can to stamp out crime. They don’t care about the problems or the people who have them; all they care about is utilizing other people’s suffering and misfortune to further their own careers.
Boston has come together before, and we can again if we want a city whose leaders put its citizens first.
Rasheed Walters is an entrepreneur, political commentator and historian. He is a member of Project 21, and resides in Boston. Follow him on Twitter @rasheednwalters.